The Seasons

Chapter 3

“Food, Jem!?” Slaine hissed as he whirled back around to stare at him. “You called my best friend, food!”

“Jem, what the hell?” Micah deadpanned.

Rosalyn whistled. “Oh, no, even Micah is surprised. Damn, Jem. You really messed up.”

“I’m not surprised. I’m disappointed.”

“You’re unbelievable,” Slaine hissed as he walked to the door, but Luna popped back in before he could.

“We get it, Luna. Maddox has gone to help you.”

“That, and why did Jasper just leave laughing his ass off? He was talking to Atticus and Kevin, saying something like, ‘did you see their faces?’. What did he do? I would like to know. His little tricks amuse me.”

“I’m going to strangle him,” Jem deadpanned when realisation dawned.

“We’re leaving,” Slaine said, looking down at Wing, who nodded slightly. He got up, staring at everyone warily as he not so subtly avoided them and followed after Slaine.

Wing followed Slaine out the door and found himself behind a bar; the place was packed. He got odd looks from some people sitting at the counter. The smell of the undead and wolves hit the air, and then he realised he was sure none of the people in the place was human besides a few. He smelled nature, water, and even something not quite right; the music that wasn’t that loud seemed to be thumping in his ears as he tried to zone it out.

Oh, f**k. Did this mean they had always been living side by side with creatures believed only to be in fairy tales and stories? Oh, what the f**k. Were his friends all humans, or had they kept this secret? Hell, were any of the teachers not human?

He silently followed after Slaine, who stared down at anyone who tried to get close to them and before he knew it, he was outside, the cool air of the night wafting through them, but he didn’t feel it. He didn’t feel hot or cold. Was this how it was going to be from now on?

Okay, that could be cool. Imagine being able to wear whatever you wanted without a care for how hot or cold it was. Oh, this was amazing the more he thought about it. He hated being too hot or cold, and now he would be just the right temperature for however long he lived.

Were vampires immortal? Oh, did they burn in the sunlight, or you know, sparkle?

But they arrived at a large apartment complex and took the stairs, and usually, by the second flight, Wing would need a break, but he kept going and going all the way to the sixth floor, and he didn’t even feel the slightest bit out of breath. Wow, he could get used to this. “Hey, Slaine. What day is it?”

Slaine sighed as he pulled out his phone and simply showed the screen to him. If vampires could pale, Wing was sure he would have. He had been taken on the 5th of November last year, and now it was May 26th. He’d been held and tortured for six months; they had kept him for six months.

He’d been cut, stabbed, injected, beaten, and worse for six months.

Oh, well, he didn’t have to worry about the essay anymore. But six months. Oh, f**k. Oh, f**k. What the f**k?!

“Are you okay?”

Wing wanted to say he was fine but was he? He was held there for six months, touched, prodded, poked, injected with god knows what, and left for dead. He was left for dead when they had been through with him.

“Wing. Are you okay?”

“I was,” he said, scowling at how dry his mouth was. Why was his mouth so dry? He smacked his mouth, and Slaine sighed as he opened the door to his apartment and went in. Wing went in after him, still smacking his mouth together.

He didn’t like the feeling of his mouth being as dry as it was, and he somehow knew no matter how much water he drank, it would not cut it. But as he walked in, his eyes landed on the large floor-to-ceiling windows, and maybe vampires didn’t die in sunlight because that’s what he was now, a vampire.

Slaine went to the kitchen as Wing sat on the couch and stared at the large TV area. The lounge area was barely decorated except for the stacks of paper on the glass table, curiosity got the best of him, and he leaned forward, finding it slightly jarring at how well he could see even without his glasses. He realised the papers were all essays.

“Don’t look at my s**t,” Slaine deadpanned as he handed Wing a thermos. He didn’t need to ask to know what it was. He could smell it. He could smell the blood from here and couldn’t wait to drink it.

He grabbed it and, with a few gulps, finished the whole thing. He sighed as he felt his stomach fill up. “So, you’re a teacher?”

“Yes.”

Wing nodded. “What do you teach and where?”

“I teach at a high school and all sorts of subjects.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. What’s your favourite one?”

“I like the languages the most.”

“What do you teach?”

“Spanish, German and French. I can speak all three.” Wing’s mouth dropped open, he only knew English, and even then, it was debatable.

“Your windows. I'm assuming vampires don’t burn in the sun then; otherwise, you wouldn't have such huge windows letting in all that sunlight.”

“No, they do. I don't,” he said, then he frowned as he looked at his reflection in the large mirror before rolling his eyes. “And since I bit you, I’m not sure if you would die, so until they figure that out, don’t go in the sunlight.”

“Ahh. Okay. I need to get a phone. I need to go to university. Oh, god. My friends probably think I’m dead. I was, they,” he trailed off.

“Well, you died on them, so they’re not wrong.”

Wing nodded slowly. Okay, he had time to adjust. He could do this slowly, but he first needed a notebook. At this point, even some pen and paper would be fine. He needed to make a list of things he needed to do to catch up with everything he had missed and relax, his body may have been fine, but his brain was not. He needed some semblance of control and for now, that would be trying to sort of what remained of his life.

But there was one thing eating him up inside, and he knew he would never be able to relax until he found out what exactly had happened and why. “I want to find out about what happened to me,” he said after a silence between them.

“We all do.”

Wing frowned. “What does that mean?”

Slaine groaned. “So, the last couple of months, people have been going missing, they’ve mainly been, you know, not humans, and they’ve been found dead a few months later, but lately, it’s become days. They’ll be taken on Monday, and their body would be found on Friday, and well, everyone is panicking because no one knows why. But you’re the first human to have been taken that we are aware of.”

“So?”

He sighed. “Neo wants to stick his nose in this because a regular from The Seasons was one of the ones found dead, and well, me finding you-”

“-trying to eat me.”

The purple-eyed vampire rolled his eyes. “I didn’t try to eat you. I drank from you. There’s a difference. But anyway, I think we just found our way into this, and you, Wing, are smack in the middle of it all. Apparently.”

~*~